Entertainment companies invest millions of dollars into the development and production of entertainment commodities for release and distribution to consumers in the form of movies, television shows, advertising materials, video games, books, music, and the like. Many entertainment companies develop entertainment commodities with the intent to release the same, similar, or related entertainment commodity in more than one form. Examples of this practice include movies that are based on books, music made for movies but also for distribution as music separate from the movie, and video games based on movies. Moreover, entertainment companies are able to expand the traditional definition of entertainment commodity through sales of retail goods associated with the content developed by the entertainment company, such as t-shirts, calendars, posters, and other products that carry images or other content developed by the entertainment company.
Due to entertainment commodities being released, marketed, and distributed by entertainment companies in a number of different forms, products incorporating the same entertainment commodity are often distributed in a plurality of distribution channels. Entertainment companies go to great lengths to maximize the consumption of the commodity in the various distribution channels. The manner in which the entertainment commodity is released and the marketing associated with the commodity may vary depending on the marketing theory, the past performance of the commodity, and the impact the entertainment company is seeking for a given entertainment commodity. Marketing and distribution strategies are often complex and somewhat fluid while the entertainment commodity courses through its life-cycle and through the various distribution channels. Entertainment companies are generally anxious to know the results of their strategies as soon as possible to enable them to make whatever changes may be necessary to maximize the consumption of and/or the revenue from their entertainment commodities.
Different entertainment commodities may be distributed through different distribution channels depending on the content or origin of the entertainment commodity. For example, an entertainment commodity that begins as a video game may become a feature film less frequently than the inverse. Some entertainment commodities that begin as feature films distributed to movie theaters are also distributed via one or more additional distribution channels, such as via pay-per-view providers, video on demand providers, video rental outlets, video retail outlets, premium cable or satellite channels, subscription cable or satellite channels, network television channels, and various non-traditional distribution channels through which the entertainment commodity may be cross-marketed, such as retail consumer products. While different entertainment commodities may be distributed through different distribution channels, or stages in the life-cycle of the commodity, nearly all entertainment commodities are distributed through at least two distribution channels, whether traditional or non-traditional.
Many entertainment companies collect data on the performance of entertainment commodities at discrete stages during the life-cycle of the entertainment commodity, such as the performance in the discrete distribution channels. Unfortunately, different distributors within and between the various distribution channels collect different types of data or report the performance of entertainment commodities in different manners. For example, a single entertainment commodity may be represented by a number of different titles depending on the distributor and the distribution channel. In most circumstances, the variations in the title are necessitated by the distribution channel itself or by the distributors' collection and reporting systems. Accordingly, when an entertainment company wants to know how one of its commodities is performing, especially over the entire life-cycle of the commodity or between different stages in the life-cycle, the process can be daunting. Due to the dozens or even hundreds of ways that the consumption of an entertainment commodity can be reported, entertainment companies have not had a computerized system or method of reconciling the numerous reports to get a clear picture of how an entertainment commodity is performing.